Days after Gulf Coast communities delivered a letter to its door, German Energy Company EnBW signs a new five-year contract for more LNG from Louisiana
From Left to Right: Manuel Hagel, Isabel Rathgeb, Misha Mayeur, James Hiatt, Saladino Lorenzo, unknonwn. Photo Courtesy of Joe Cantu II (Habitat Recovery Project)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 22 June 2026
Days after Gulf Coast communities delivered a letter to its door, German Energy Company EnBW signs a new five-year contract for more LNG from Louisiana
Publicly owned EnBW deepens its ties to Venture Global, the company driving the loss of health, fisheries, and coastline in Southwest Louisiana
LAKE CHARLES, La. and KARLSRUHE, Germany — On Tuesday, Gulf Coast and German organizations hand-delivered a letter to the Karlsruhe headquarters of EnBW, the energy company owned almost entirely by the state of Baden-Württemberg and its municipalities. The letter described in plain detail the harm that EnBW's gas purchases are causing in south Louisiana, and asked the company to stop financing it.
The company gave its answer within days. On 17 June 2026, EnBW and Venture Global announced a new, binding agreement for roughly 0.82 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas per year for about five years, beginning in 2026. The new contract is in addition to the existing twenty-year agreements under which EnBW already takes 2 million tonnes of Venture Global LNG each year. The gas will be supplied from Venture Global's Calcasieu Pass, Plaquemines, and CP2, which sit on the coast of Louisiana.
These organizations want the people of Baden-Württemberg to know what that gas costs the communities that live beside it.
Near the Calcasieu Pass terminal and the construction site of CP2, residents live with air pollution that tracks alongside heightened rates of asthma, cancer, and heart disease. The estuaries that fed the region for generations are being buried under dredge spoil, killing crabs, oysters, and fish that have sustained fishermen's livelihoods for generations. Cameron Parish was once the fishing capital of the United States. Today, nearly all waterfront property in Cameron is slated for LNG exports, and the constant ship traffic and noise drive away the shrimp. The reckless mud placement has been so severe that there has been virtually no oyster season at all last year, and millions of oysters have been ruined.
The climate cost compounds the local one, especially when sourcing from US fracked gas. Over a twenty-year period, methane leaking across the gas supply chain is roughly eighty-four times more harmful to the climate than carbon dioxide. Baden-Württemberg has committed to becoming climate neutral by 2040, a promise that cannot be kept with new multi-year contracts for fracked gas.
Press Contact : Misha Mayeur, +1-504-858-5819, misha@habitatrecovery.org
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Quotes
"EnBW just signed a new 5-year purchasing agreement with Venture Global, the same company responsible for gas that is polluting our air and burying our estuaries in mud. EnBW belongs to the people of Baden-Württemberg, and the people deserve to know that this company chose more harm over a single honest conversation," James Hiatt, Director, For a Better Bayou
"Investing in a global warming accelerant, methane, as an energy source seems absurd to me. These investments cost lives: in the most immediate sense, Gulf Coast communities are facing the decimation of their homes from LNG export build-out. Additionally, anyone who has suffered from the extreme heat of global warming or the increase in climate volatility has LNG, in part, to blame. We must bravely step into the future of renewable energies." Misha Mayeur, Deputy Director of Habitat Recovery Project
"This contract chains Baden-Württemberg to fracked gas, and to a ruined coastline, for years to come. It runs directly against our own state's promise to be climate neutral by 2040. A company that belongs to the public should serve the public. It should not lock us into harm we have said clearly we do not want." Ingo Laubenthal, Co-Spokesperson for Klimabündnis Karlsruhe
For a Better Bayou is a community environmental organization in Southwest Louisiana.
Habitat Recovery Project is a community-focused conservation movement based in Louisiana.
Klimabündnis Karlsruhe is an association of representatives who are committed to climate protection through their professional or voluntary work.
Greenfaith is a worldwide, multi-faith climate and environmental movement.
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Letter (Original):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pHze9CQ8pqrOj26yLbojv5m6megQhki8/view?usp=drive_link
Photos:
1. https://europe.greenfaith.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2026-06-16-EnBW-Mahnwache-Gre enFaith_by-Sofia-Vigilante-Raffa-1536x864.jpg (credit: Sofia Raffa / GreenFaith)
2. https://europe.greenfaith.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2026-06-16-Ubergabe-Brief-an-Inne nminister-Manuel-Hagel_Stuttgart-1536x1324.jpg (credit: Jesse Boie / GreenFaith)
3. https://habitatrecovery.org/enbw (credit: Jose Cantu II / Habitat Recovery Project)
4. https://europe.greenfaith.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2026-06-16-EnBW-Mahnwache-Gre enFaith_by-Joe-Cantu_1-scaled.jpg (credit: Jose Cantu II / Habitat Recovery Project)